


For Better or Worse

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Earth 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-20
Updated: 2006-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 07:24:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1638773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Danzinger finds he has something in common with Devon Adair after all. (Takes place during the Pilot.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Better or Worse

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to Noel for betaing. She rocks mightily!
> 
> Written for anr

 

 

John Danzinger didn't stop walking until he found a deserted stretch of corridor where he could sink down on the nearest step and try not to lose it. He was used to playing the part of the tough grunt, more interested in making a buck than dealing with politics or worrying about why the government wanted to plant explosives on the ship. He was definitely good enough at it to be able to bluff his way through that conversation with O'Neil and his crazy boss. It didn't mean he wasn't shaking on the inside.

What the hell had he gotten himself into?

"Just tell everyone hazard pay has been invoked," Adair had said. Like paying three times their already huge credit haul for this load was as easy as breathing. Hell, for a lady as rich as Adair, maybe it was. John wondered sometimes whether the credits he needed to pay off his family's debt were even a dent in her creditfile.

Of course, credits didn't mean much if you were dead, and nobody on this tub would be breathing at all right now if he hadn't found the damn bomb. A _bomb_. What the hell was it about this crusade of hers that was worth killing her over?

Nobody really thought this New Pacifica idea was going to fly, anyway, right? Sure, John knew all the stories about Earth in the old days: It was green and rich and covered in plants and animals and every kid had a cat and every pot had a chicken. Or something like that. And he'd heard all the talk about 889 being just like Earth--like it enough to save all those synkids whose parents were rich enough to get them booked on the cold storage that was on its way into oblivion right along with this ship...

All in all, it didn't really matter what the stories were or how New Pacifica measured up. With that bomb, the government pretty much proved that what humans did best, generally, was screw things up. Especially rich, living, healthy things.

Like Devon Adair.

But not like her kid. Uly Adair was a spunky one, that was for sure--especially given all life had thrown at him. He and that cyborg of his (and wasn't John just waiting for _that_ one to go nuts? You didn't even need a bomb with a Yale onboard.) tooled around this little bucket like they owned the place. Which, of course, they did.

All _that_ showed was that money doesn't buy happiness and long life. Except that Uly wouldn't have lived past his _first_ birthday if he'd grown up where John had. Medical care and fancy biosuits cost big money, and no one was gonna waste that on a drone.

John tried not to think about what he would have done if True hadn't been the kid she was: smart as all get-out and healthy enough to bounce off walls... Maybe he would have done exactly what Adair was doing now, damn the expense and the danger.

He ran a hand through his hair. They were committed now, anyway, so it didn't much matter what he would have done. Maybe O'Neil was right, and whatever administration John came back to would have forgotten all about the Eden Project and its crazy departure. Maybe he'd get to do just what he'd planned: pay off the debt that had been weighing him down since he left the womb, retire to somewhere above the crap he'd grown up in, and let True have a real life.

And maybe Adair's kid and all those frozen synkids would have a chance, too. He'd seen pictures of Earth, and it didn't look like much of a place to call home, but maybe New Pacifica really was the clean paradise this Eden Project thought it was.

They just had to live long enough to get there.

He pulled himself up by the stair rail, just in time to bump into Adair--literally--as she headed aft, toward her quarters.

"Sorry," he offered shortly, waiting for her to brush him off, the way rich people did, as she hurried on her way.

"My fault," she said instead, with a sheepish smile. "I'm late to tuck in my son."

"Better watch that," he answered, smiling in spite of himself. "Kids've got long memories. Someday he'll find a way to hold that against you."

Her grin dimmed for a second before she cocked her head. "I hope he gets to," she said quietly. "After all, it's why I'm here. For better or worse."

"Remember that when he blames you for not getting a cat for Christmas," John replied sagely.

"You're the man with the child onboard?" she asked, sounding genuinely interested.

Now it was his turn to look sheepish. He'd had to pull in some major favors to make room for a ten-year-old crewman on this trip. "Yeah. True's a handful, but..." But there was no way he was letting her grow up alone while he was gone. "She's good with a wrench."

Adair smiled again, and John decided he could almost get to like that. If he wasn't dropping her at 889 and heading back to the stations as fast as Lonzo could get him there, that is.

"Well, don't you forget to tuck _her_ in," Adair offered as she headed off again. "I have a feeling you already know what kids are like when you forget."

John froze as she walked away, damning himself for thinking she actually gave a crap. _"You already know what kids are like when you forget."_ Yeah, because he was just a drone, right? Couldn't raise his own kid...

Why the hell did she think he'd dragged True along on this one, anyway? He was going to be gone a lifetime-- _her_ lifetime. And with their family debt what it was... He'd seen what some families had to resort to, to pay the bills. And he wasn't having that for his daughter. No way. She was going to grow up a free woman.

He snorted as his anger drained away. Yeah, True was going to grow up free. And she was going to _grow up_. And really, that was all Adair wanted for her kid....

Maybe she hadn't meant it the way she said it. She had certainly seemed interested. And not at all bad to look at, for a rich lady...

John shook his head and headed back below--where he belonged--promising himself that one day, his True was gonna have the kind of shot that Adair's kid should have had. One day he was going to tuck her into bed in style. Maybe even with that cat she was always wanting...

Because really, _that_ was why _he_ was here. For better or worse.

 


End file.
